Outhouse Editor

House of J wrote:Ordinarily, yes, but Dark Horse specifically designed this as part of their "One Shot Wonders" promotion and so it doesn't.

Your reason is the same reason I didn't buy The Goon one-shot, which was a mistake in hindsight.

No, it is designed to stand alone. That does not mean it serves no purpose or is not important to the larger story...

The Goon is a good example of how One Shots can fail. It tells a great stand alone story, but will be incomprehensible to folks that have never read the Goon before because they won't know who or what anyone is and what they are doing. It think it was a brilliant comic and some of the best Pantomime work I have seen outside of the introduction to The Hunter by Cooke, but it relies heavily on the reader being familiar with the work at large.

The program is not designed to give people books that are separate from the larger book but to show new readers that these books are approachable, to give them the feeling that they can jump in. Many of them are merely introductions or origins. some of them are reprints of previously available material, some of them rely on the creator and the properties to speak for themselves. They are not big crossover events. I think DH did a tremendous job with the initiative, but I never got the impression that they were side stories that didn't matter.

It was sort of an anti crossover thing for being a way to get readers excited in their books.

If this book were Hellboy Bride of Hell part 1 of 5, I don't think anyone would say word one about me not reviewing it. It is no different than us doing a separate thread or whatever we did for the last issue of Y to respect the way that the trade readers read the story. Knowing what Mignola has done with Hellboy and why I chose not to just read the tpbs and catch up, I don't want to find out things that aren't necessary for me to read yet. I didn't take this stand with the Witchfinder book, but I am gonna do it now. My reason is not dumb, you may not like it, but it is a valid reason and my reason for not reviewing the book.

Outhouse Editor

House of J wrote:Ordinarily, yes, but Dark Horse specifically designed this as part of their "One Shot Wonders" promotion and so it doesn't.

Your reason is the same reason I didn't buy The Goon one-shot, which was a mistake in hindsight.

No, it is designed to stand alone. That does not mean it serves no purpose or is not important to the larger story...

The Goon is a good example of how One Shots can fail. It tells a great stand alone story, but will be incomprehensible to folks that have never read the Goon before because they won't know who or what anyone is and what they are doing. It think it was a brilliant comic and some of the best Pantomime work I have seen outside of the introduction to The Hunter by Cooke, but it relies heavily on the reader being familiar with the work at large.

The program is not designed to give people books that are separate from the larger book but to show new readers that these books are approachable, to give them the feeling that they can jump in. Many of them are merely introductions or origins. some of them are reprints of previously available material, some of them rely on the creator and the properties to speak for themselves. They are not big crossover events. I think DH did a tremendous job with the initiative, but I never got the impression that they were side stories that didn't matter.

It was sort of an anti crossover thing for being a way to get readers excited in their books.

If this book were Hellboy Bride of Hell part 1 of 5, I don't think anyone would say word one about me not reviewing it. It is no different than us doing a separate thread or whatever we did for the last issue of Y to respect the way that the trade readers read the story. Knowing what Mignola has done with Hellboy and why I chose not to just read the tpbs and catch up, I don't want to find out things that aren't necessary for me to read yet. I didn't take this stand with the Witchfinder book, but I am gonna do it now. My reason is not dumb, you may not like it, but it is a valid reason and my reason for not reviewing the book.

Rain Partier

Unlike most issues of Hellboy, you could have swapped his character out for 1000 others in this one shot.

Any other issue than this, you'd be right--it's ironic that you choose to draw the line at this issue, which when you finally read it (if it's even collected with the others) you will understand why. Hellboy is nearly inconsequential in it.

I guessing that's one reason why guitarsmashley didn't like it--it goes so far to free itself from the Hellboy mythos that he barely mattered. There's nothing to accidentally find out.

Rain Partier

Unlike most issues of Hellboy, you could have swapped his character out for 1000 others in this one shot.

Any other issue than this, you'd be right--it's ironic that you choose to draw the line at this issue, which when you finally read it (if it's even collected with the others) you will understand why. Hellboy is nearly inconsequential in it.

I guessing that's one reason why guitarsmashley didn't like it--it goes so far to free itself from the Hellboy mythos that he barely mattered. There's nothing to accidentally find out.

Outhouse Editor

House of J wrote:Unlike most issues of Hellboy, you could have swapped his character out for 1000 others in this one shot.

Any other issue than this, you'd be right--it's ironic that you choose to draw the line at this issue, which when you finally read it (if it's even collected with the others) you will understand why. Hellboy is nearly inconsequential in it.

I guessing that's one reason why guitarsmashley didn't like it--it goes so far to free itself from the Hellboy mythos that he barely mattered. There's nothing to accidentally find out.

I didn't want to read Witchfinder, and after I read the second issue, I wish I had kept to that. Just because Hellboy is inconsequential in the story, does not mean it is inconsequential to the mythos or the story that Mignola is telling...

Outhouse Editor

House of J wrote:Unlike most issues of Hellboy, you could have swapped his character out for 1000 others in this one shot.

Any other issue than this, you'd be right--it's ironic that you choose to draw the line at this issue, which when you finally read it (if it's even collected with the others) you will understand why. Hellboy is nearly inconsequential in it.

I guessing that's one reason why guitarsmashley didn't like it--it goes so far to free itself from the Hellboy mythos that he barely mattered. There's nothing to accidentally find out.

I didn't want to read Witchfinder, and after I read the second issue, I wish I had kept to that. Just because Hellboy is inconsequential in the story, does not mean it is inconsequential to the mythos or the story that Mignola is telling...

Rain Partier

thefourthman wrote:I didn't want to read Witchfinder, and after I read the second issue, I wish I had kept to that. Just because Hellboy is inconsequential in the story, does not mean it is inconsequential to the mythos or the story that Mignola is telling...

Like I say, I believe when you read it you'll see that it is. It's a sort of generic EC-style horror tale--I have been wracking my brains trying to figure out where I've read a similar story long ago--with the same sort of twist at the end you learn to see coming a mile away. (Of course, Richard Corben himself adds to that impression.)

Rain Partier

thefourthman wrote:I didn't want to read Witchfinder, and after I read the second issue, I wish I had kept to that. Just because Hellboy is inconsequential in the story, does not mean it is inconsequential to the mythos or the story that Mignola is telling...

Like I say, I believe when you read it you'll see that it is. It's a sort of generic EC-style horror tale--I have been wracking my brains trying to figure out where I've read a similar story long ago--with the same sort of twist at the end you learn to see coming a mile away. (Of course, Richard Corben himself adds to that impression.)